Summary
Overview
Princeton University.
Office of Communications.
Office of Communications Records
201.22 linear feet, 246 boxes
Abstract
The Office of Communications is Princeton University's administrative
department with oversight of media relations and publicity, official publications,
web site design and development, and photographic services. The Office of
Communications Records consist of subject files and photographs created by the
office, some going back to the 1920s, when the first Director of Public Relations
was appointed.
Description
Description
The Office of Communications Records document a wide range of public University
activities and dealings. Most files contain press releases, clippings of
University publicity and outside press coverage, and, in some cases,
correspondence. Subjects include regular University business as well as special
events, University policies, individual departments, faculty members, student
activities and life, and dealings with alumni and donors. The records also
contain large numbers of photographs and contact prints created by Office of
Communication staff photographers. These visual materials document the
above-mentioned topics, and many of the images were printed in the Princeton Alumni Weekly, the
Princeton Weekly Bulletin, or on the University's webpage.
Please see series descriptions in contents list for additional information about
individual series.
Collection Creator
History
The Office of Communications is Princeton University's administrative department with
oversight of media relations and publicity, official publications, web site design
and development, and photographic services.
The history of the University's Communications Office can be traced to 1925, when
Alexander Leitch was appointed Director of Public Relations. He was succeeded three
years later by Frederick Spring Osborne, who was called Director of Public
Information. During the following years the title switched back and forth with major
departmental changes.
The first expansion into a real department was in 1946, when Edmund Schacleford
DeLong was appointed above Osborne as Director of Public Relations and Dan Coyle
became the third staff member. The new department moved from Nassau Hall to Reunion
Hall one year later. It was renamed Department of Public Information again in 1954
and kept that name until 1973.
The department grew in the 1960s. Coyle, who had left in 1959, came back as Director
of Public Information in 1965, and the department moved into Stanhope Hall. By then
it had seven staff members, including an assistant to the Director, a person in
charge of sports information, and William McCleery, who was appointed in 1964 as the
editor of University, A Princeton Quarterly. McCleery
soon moved to his own office in Maclean House.
In 1973 Coyle retired and the department was renamed the News Bureau, headed by John
M. Fenton, the previous Associate Director who had joined the office in 1963. A
second staff member was added for sports coverage, and McCleery was from then on
listed separately in the University directories. Fenton soon left the new News
Bureau, and in 1975 the department was renamed the Communications Office, with
George Eager as the new director. A third person was added to the sports section,
which moved to the new Jadwin Gymnasium. Both the division at Jadwin Gym and
Stanhope Hall gained another staff member one year later, bringing the total to
nine.
In 1981 Communications merged with Publications, which had been established in 1974.
By 1990 the staff of the Communications/Publications Department numbered 16 in all,
with subsections for news, the Princeton Weekly
Bulletin, publications, and athletics. A later reorganization resulted in
the creation of four Communications teams centered around the needs of the
University in the 21st century; the administrative team, the news team, the
publications team, and the web team.
Collection History
Acquisition
The records which comprise Series 1 were fully processed in 2002 as the Office of
Communications Records. The records which comprise Series 2, Series 4, and
Series 4 were transferred to the University Archives in several accessions
between the 1990s and 2008.
Archival Appraisal Information
Appraisal of this collection was conducted according to Mudd Library Guidelines.
During 2009 processing several duplicate publications which were found elsewhere
in the Library's collections were removed.
Processing Information
Series 1 of this collection was processed by Helene Van
Rossum in 2005. Series 2,
Series 3, and Series 4 of this collection were processed by Daniel Brennan in 2008. Finding aid written by Helene Van Rossum in 2005 and added to by Daniel Brennan in
2008. Boxes 236-245 were added
to Series 4 by Christie Peterson with assistance
from Eleanor Wright '14 and Suchi Mandavilli '14 in April and May 2012.
Accruals
Continued accruals of records are expected from the Office of Communications
indefinitely.
Access and Use
Access Restrictions
Collection is open for research use.
Use Restrictions
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish
material from the collection must be requested from the University Archivist.
Copyright is held by the Trustees of Princeton University.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Series 4: Photographs contains a number of 35mm film slides and photographic
negatives.
Preferred Citation
Office of Communications Records; 1917-2010, Princeton University Archives, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.
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